Re: WLCY question..and a long answer
Hi guys...Yeah I was part of the "new" airstaff brought in by CKLW PD and Top 40 guru Bill Hennes in late 1975 early 1976. There were 10 of us brought in from various markets including Chuck Morgan from WNDE Indianapolis, The late Chuck (Cary Baker) Stevens, Tom Murphy from Jacksonville's WAPE, "Screamin" Jay Hawkins..Howie Castle and myself from Syracuse, Rockin' Ron Parker from Atlanta's WQXI..Jack Daniels from Denver, Ben (Umburger) Christopher who was already at WLCY, Johnny Stevens from WLCY, and a few others. WFLA's Tedd Webb was production director and "spiritual advisor"
The station was called WLCY, The GREAT 138! The jocks were brought in and we all stayed at the Barclay Best Western on Kennedy in Tampa (on the 8th floor). We had a "mock" studio set up at the hotel and we all did about a week of dry run airshifts unbeknownst to the current jock staff. The FM was automated "Hit Parade" format. We literally drew straws as to who would to what shift on what station. The FM was soon to be called Y95 "My Number 1 Music Station"
Funny thing was that we were all paid the same weekly salary. 325.00/week No matter what shift, except for the PD's (Morgan and Castle for the FM and AM respectively) They got more money for the headaches of scheduling and dealing with the consultant. The GM was Tom Watson. GREAT guy, and a great staff made that one hell of a great sounding couple of stations. I got mornings on the AM. For a short time the AM beat fledgling Q105..then the FM erosion began to take hold.
Both stations sported the same playlist exactly..and the "surveys" were printed in house by the WLCY Channel 10 print shop. Each station had the exact same TM Shotgun jingle.
I remember WLCY gave away a brand new shiny yellow 1976 Corvette in the WLCY HEAVY WHEELS CONTEST. Each of the AM jocks had to have thier weight recorded. They added that total number to the actual weight of the car. The that number was entered into a "State of the Art" Hewlett-Packard computer. (so none of us knew the number) The computer was nothing more than a calculator, but at the time I think they paid like 500 dollars for it. Listeners would call in with a total weight guess. The jock would enter the guess into the computer and press "E"...If it came up with a line of "9999999" the guess was too high. A line of "1111111" it was too low, and if it came up with "0000000" it was a winner. For recycling listeners we would tell them when to be listening for Ron Parkers weight to be given, or for Jeff Laurence's weight..etc (I was 180..sigh....) Savvy listeners could add the various jock's weights, and get the approximate weight of the car from a Chevy dealer to make a calculated guess IF they were the right numbered caller.
Fun station!
Sorry for the ramble
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